Elmer B. Staats

Staats first entered public service in 1936, after graduating with his master's degree from the University of Kansas, where he spent that summer as a research assistant for the Kansas Legislative Council of Topeka. He was a member of the staff of the Public Administration Service of Chicago from 1937 to 1938 while he was working on his doctorate at the University of Minnesota. He was a Fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington from 1938 to 1939.

Staats joined the Bureau of the Budget (now the OMB) during the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt and was employed by the BOB from 1939 to 1953. At BOB, he served in the Division of Administrative Management (1939–1943), in the War Agencies Section (1943–47), and as its chief (1945–1947). During World War II, Staats was responsible for organizing, financing, managing, and coordinating the principal civilian war agencies. After the war, Staats was promoted to assistant to the BOB director (1947), assistant director in charge of Legislative Reference (1947–1949), executive assistant director (1949–1950), and, following appointment by President Harry Truman, to the deputy director of the agency (1950–1953).

Staats left government service for a year after the Eisenhower presidential transition, and during most of 1953 he served as research director for Marshall Field & Company. He returned to government service when he was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower to serve as Executive Officer of the Operations Coordinating Board of the National Security Council, which was responsible for coordinated implementation of US foreign policies and operations in foreign countries. Staats served from 1954 to 1958.

In 1958, Staats returned to BOB and served as assistant director (September 1958-March 1959) before being reappointed deputy director by President Eisenhower (March 1959–61). Staats continued in the deputy director position under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Staats left BOB to become the 5th Comptroller General of the United States in 1966. On February 11, 1966, President Johnson nominated Staats for the position of Comptroller General, which also involves serving as head of the GAO. The United States Senate Committee on Government Operations held a hearing on March 2, 1966 on Johnson's nomination of Staats to be Comptroller General, endorsed it on the same date, and on March 4, 1966, the US Senate officially confirmed the nomination of Staats to become Comptroller General. Staats was sworn in as Comptroller General by President Johnson on March 8, 1966, at a ceremony at the White House.

Staats served until his term, expired on March 3, 1981. As Comptroller General, Staats drew on his many years of government experience, including as a former Deputy Director of the Bureau of the Budget under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, as he led GAO during a period of change and national turmoil.[5]

In reflecting on Staats's tenure, a senior GAO manager referred to him in 1981 as "a pragmatic agent of good government," who viewed GAO's reports as "a way to achieve results rather than simply hitting someone over the head." Staats was a strong advocate of public service and constructive change, who worked to improve management throughout the government. Within GAO, he practiced a participatory management style, often relying on task forces to study job processes and organizational issues.[5] Staats focused on improving GAO's internal planning processes and on expanding its work and issue areas to more effectively serve the Congress. Not only the Comptroller General broadened GAO's work but also he increased the agency's services to Congress. When Staats took charge of GAO in 1966, less than ten percent of the total effort of its professional staff went toward providing direct assistance to the Congress. By the time he left office in 1981, the number had risen to nearly 40 percent.[5]

Under Staats, GAO worked on a number of issues of great national importance. Before the Federal Elections Commission assumed oversight of campaign expenditures in 1974, GAO's Office of Federal Elections undertook a number of reviews, some of which touched on Watergate. GAO also did important work on energy issues, consumer protection, the economy, and New York City's fiscal crisis. As the Vietnam War intensified and defense spending rose, Staats in 1966 opened an office in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. GAO's auditors worked in the field as well as in Saigon. Some of the fieldwork was done under hazardous circumstances. In 1969, six auditors narrowly escaped injury during a rocket attack on the base at Da Nang, South Vietnam. GAO's Saigon office remained operational until the peace accords in 1973.[5]

During his tenure, Staats worked to improve governmental accountability. He revitalized GAO's work with the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program. Under Staats, GAO took a lead role in issuing auditing guidance. In 1970, the Bureau of the Budget and GAO agreed on the formation of a government auditing standards task force, which undertook a lengthy research and drafting process. As a result of the work of the task force, the Comptroller General issued in 1972 the first edition of the Standards for Audit of Governmental Organizations, Programs, Activities & Functions, which came to be known as the "Yellow Book." In later years, GAO gave the book a more concise title, Government Auditing Standards, and updated its guidance periodically. In addition to issuing guidance to help state and local auditors, the Comptroller General played a key role in establishing intergovernmental audit forums in the 1970s.[5]

As comptroller general, he served as the first chairman (1970–1981) of the Cost Accounting Standards Board, and as a member of a number of Presidential and Governmental Advisory Bodies, including the Commission on Government Procurement (1971–1973); President's Commission on Budget Concepts (1967–1968); Commission on Federal Paperwork (1976–1978); Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on Federal Consolidated Financial Statements (1976–1979); National Advisory Committee for the Work in America, Inc. (1979–1980); Chrysler Loan Guarantee Board (1980–1981); Board of Governors, International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (1969–81), Technology Assessment Advisory Council (1972–1981); Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (1966–1981); and the President's Management Improvement Council (1979–80).[4] GAO changed radically during the Staats period. These changes generally reflected the shift to program evaluation, the emergence of a host of new foreign and domestic problems, and Congress's increasing assertiveness in its relationships with the executive branch. Staats provided effective leadership as GAO strove to meet the new challenges, as he was widely respected in the Congress and in the government as a whole.[6]

After serving as Comptroller General, Staats became the president and later chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation until his death in 2011.